One of well received ideas in long discussion about fighting system was adding a possibility of Near Death State (NDS).
It was good enough that development forum members decided to adopt it alone (apart from other fighting ideas).
It was almost two years ago, but discussion stopped without final result about technical issues.
Then I took the project and after agreeing about basics of the suggestion I started implementation. Some other things caused I didn't finish it then, but now I had some time to revive already done stuff and complete the rest. Now we have fully working NDS system on Test Environment (staff is welcome here), so it's almost there.
However, it's too big to be just announced after implementation. You all should be ready to welcome NDS in the following days with knowledge how it will work.
Most important idea about NDS: it's not to make killing harder. It's to give possibility to not kill somebody if attacker wants to avoid it.
After getting a fatal blow (when char reaches 100% damage because of poison, other char or animal attack [not because of hunger/heart attack]) character drops all items (except worn clothes) and enters Near Death State. NDS always lasts for 3 days (24+-1 in-game hours), unless char is finished off by somebody. When char is in NDS she/he lies on the ground and can't commit most of the actions. The only possible actions are:
- entering events/people/location pages/character detailed description page
- talk (both public and whisper), good RP appreciated
- point at people and roads (because entering other pages with "point at" button is prohibited anyway)
- death (will be described further)
Character in NDS has about 99.99% damage, so can be very easily dragged by somebody else, but can't be attacked. Instead there are two actions available for other people:
1. finish off character
2. heal character
Finish off - [dagger icon] it's immediate action which results in permanent death of character in NDS. It's not limited by "1 attack per day" rule, so you can give somebody a fatal wound and then finish off. It doesn't cause any tiredness. Finish off range is the same as for attack (you can finish off char in a vehicle, but not in a building with window from outside). You have to have a weapon (any item which can be used for attack) in inventory to commit that action.
Death reason for the body always shows weapon used in fatal blow (attack which resulted in entering NDS).
Heal - clicking [+] results in creating healing project (allowed 1 per location per char in NDS). Healing project takes 1 day, can be speeded up by using specialized tools like bandage and similar (which will be added to the game). It's possible to make progress in a project only if healed character is in the same location. It's impossible to finish off character which is subject of active (at least 1 character working on it) healing project in the same location. But it shouldn't be used as magic shield, because somebody can easily drag patient to neighboring location and then finish him off.
After finishing healing project (this project is always successful) NDS char's wounds are well-treated, but he still doesn't leave NDS until 3 days since fatal blow pass. So still can be finished off. (another reason why "healing shield" isn't good protection).
When 3 days pass character can either die (because of untreated injuries) or leave NDS with ~80% damage (if character was cured).
But it's not end of the story. After leaving NDS character cannot eat for another 5 days (except autoeating nutritious food once per day). The only way to restore health is natural healing, so resting on furniture can be a good idea.
Character in near death state has possibility to die immediately. It's done by clicking "Die" button on the top of the character info page. For other people it looks the same as death because of untreated wounds. It should rather be treated IC as death because of wounds, not suicide. There shouldn't be IC assumptions like "he died 3 minutes after fatal blow so wanted to die". It can be treated as suicide only if char in NDS roleplays it this way.
Two new buttons for chars in NDS and two new icons - black and white drops. Thanks for zot for these images!
Clarification concerning portable storages - 15.01.2014:
Possibility of keeping anything except clothes by a person in NDS is against the idea of the system, and that's why all containers are dropped when entering NDS (even when worn).
